I am looking for a financial planner in the Atlanta area

I am looking for a financial planner in the Atlanta area preferrable. I have talked to several people and now I am more confused on who is what & what is who. Whats the difference between a registered pricipal, a certified financial planner,& a financial advisor. I have heard that a hourly fee based is better than percentage of money invested. Any informative advice is welcomed or any weblinks that will help me out would be appreciated.

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Any bank , insurance company or brokerage house have financial planners. The one I encountered are more interested in selling their services, so any advice has to be taken with that in mind.

But it really depends on what your goals are. Saving for retirement is fairly standard, making you decide what your goals are and how sensitive you are to market and interest rate changes. They all say go more aggressive, which means volatility for younger folks, because in the long run, those volatile stocks will out perform "safer" stocks, leaving time to absorb the ups and downs of the market.

Folks getting closer to retirement will want to change strategy and go for less volatility, because the markets may be down when you are ready to cash in or invest in income funds or CDs or annuities.

Insurance companies have some good products and some are worth looking at, especially for older folks preparing for retirement (me) or people who want security with predictable outcomes.

I have and am dealing with Banker's Life in the conversion of my assets. The local agents are in Charleston and cover Beaufort County, but I'm sure there are agents in Atlanta. I like them because they send an agent to your home to discuss options and are available anytime for follow ups. I hate the phone tag business with some companies without agents on the local scene.

As for stocks and mutual fund investments, I did my own research and tried to diversify my mutual funds and did pretty well since the mid '50s. I tried one financial planner and didn't care for his cut and paste solutions. Heck, I can do that.

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Thanks Heron but I guess I want a side by side description of what types of titles these financial "advisers" hold. What is a registered principal? What is a financial adviser? what is a certified financial planner? What does each do and don't do? What is required by them to help out their clients?
I did find a website called NAPFA.org & very helpful, but it doesn't give any explanations to most of my questions. It does break down the difference of "Fee only Compensation, Fee-Based Compensation & Commission on how the adviser will get paid. Guess I need to do more homework. If anybody out there know of a website that will help me out, BUT not a website to solicit their business would be greatly appreciated.

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